Where was Punk invented? How did Drum ‘n’ Bass evolve? What was the atmosphere in Hippie-paradise San Francisco like in the Sixties? Music cities have a special vibe and are the birth place of legends.

German journalists Ole Loeding and Philipp Krohn have visited the 24 most important pop capitals and asked 160 artists, producers and experts why these places are unique.

Music pioneers like The Velvet Underground, Can, Tortoise, Allen Toussaint, Kurtis Blow, Eagle Eye Cherry, Faith No More, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Urge Overkill provided some deep insights into the music scenes of their city.

24 portraits of cities like NYC, London, Hamburg, Los Angeles, Berlin, Paris, Chicago etc. and their musical legacy are the content of Loeding’s and Krohn’s new book:
‘Sound of the Cities. Eine popmusikalische Entdeckungsreise’.

It was released on Wednesday, September 23rd, and costs €22,95 (*Only available in German so far. They’re doing their best to get an English version out there as well.)

“I love San Francisco and I love L.A. Great places. They have romanticism for music and art in their own way. But I can give a shit about giving them credit for what we do. I don’t think they deserve it.” (…)

“San Francisco is a very cool city to be in. The problem with cool cities – if it’s Austin or New York or San Francisco, those are particularly cool cities – the top five places in the world are usually incredibly cold to a local band in trying to get something going.” (…)

“The most credit I can give the city is that we were doing the opposite of anything it wanted us to do. That’s the nature of your environment when you are growing up and you fucking hate everything around you. And your parents, school, teachers and the cops on the street: You just want to push it all away.”
— Robert Levon Been